Missing Mentone man killed in San Bernardino hit-and-run

John Preciado departed for what would become his final walk early Friday morning, likely dressed in a suit.

The 86-year-old, a diagnosed schizophrenic, would cover more than 10 miles during his hike — even though he didn’t walk very well or fast, according to his nephew — before being struck by a hit-and-run driver in San Bernardino, authorities say.

The day-long journey began in Mentone, sometime between midnight and 7 a.m. when Preciado walked away from his assisted-care facility at 1376 Jasper Ave.

Sunrise Residential Care Home owner and licensee Charles Machain said he checked on Preciado around midnight but became concerned when Preciado didn’t show up for breakfast, a rarity, in the facility licensed to serve 12 people at a time.

“If I had to say a client was next to perfect, it would be John,” Machain said Saturday inside the facility that blends in with a row of single-story homes along a residential street. “I just feel bad, really, really bad.”

Machain said he drove around the neighborhood searching for Preciado, who routinely walked to the stop sign at the end of the block and back.

When he couldn’t find the balding man, Machain reported him missing to the Sheriff’s Department, which launched a search.

Meanwhile, Preciado’s nephew, Reuben Martinez, and other family members started a search of their own, focusing on Redlands.

Years ago, when Preciado last walked away from his caretaker, a Redlands police officer found him in a neighborhood, Martinez said Saturday in his Grand Terrace home.

Martinez, family, volunteers and members of the Sheriff’s Department couldn’t find Preciado and Martinez went to bed, thinking his uncle was still alive.

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Preciado grew up in the Westside of San Bernardino in a neighborhood near Mount Vernon Avenue and Seventh Street where he was known in the 1950s as Harry James for his trumpet skills.

“Unfortunately, schizophrenia hit him at a very young age, as a young man,” Martinez said, likely in his mid-20s.

Martinez’s late mother, Preciado’s sister, took care of her brother first at her home in Redlands before placing him in various assisted-care facilities.

He had been at Sunrise Residential since 1983, according to Machain, the owner.

After Martinez’s mother died, he took over care for his uncle, taking him on long drives once a month.

About 10 years ago, during their monthly expedition, Martinez cruised by Preciado’s old San Bernardino neighborhood and the old man recognized it, even though a new house had been built on the land of his childhood home, Martinez said.

When Martinez woke up Saturday morning, he thought to check the old neighborhood.

And while he was driving around, he received a call from the Sheriff’s Department.

A few phone calls later, Martinez learned his uncle had died from injuries suffered during a hit-and-run accident, less than two miles from his childhood home.

San Bernardino police say Preciado was crossing West Rialto Avenue in the middle of the 700 block when he was struck by an eastbound car, possibly an older model Toyota, around 8:50 p.m.

The driver didn’t stop.

Preciado was taken to Loma Linda University Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 12:53 a.m. Saturday, according to the Coroner’s Office.

“It was sort of shocking, you know,” Martinez said about the news of his uncle’s death. “I love my uncle. There’s an emptiness there.”

While police search for the motorist who fatally struck Preciado and his family begins making final arrangements, Martinez said he hopes this incident will bring awareness to schizophrenia and hit-and-run car crashes.

“We need to be our brother’s keeper,” Martinez said. “We have to be courteous enough, if that happens, to pull over and call the police.”